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Why the Protest? Crowd Gathers in Front of Park Ave Hedge Fund Today

July 30, 2015

Forget about Dan Loeb and Paul Tudor Jones- the hedge fund protesters have found new things to protest against. Around 50 protesters took a stand in front of the headquarters of NY hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management LLC on Park Ave on Thursday.

Protesters accused powerful Park Ave. hedge fund of feeding off the carcass of the failing Puerto Rican economy.
Demonstrators carry a vulture puppet on a stick, accusing the hudge fund of feeding off the failing Puerto Rico economy.
Some 50 angry New Yorkers carrying a puppet of the scavenger bird picketed the posh headquarters of BlueMountain Capital Management LLC.

“They are vultures because they are destroying the Puerto Rican people,” 56-year-old Maria Maisoneth of Brooklyn said to NYDailyNews. “They only want to make money.”

Jonathan Westin, director of New York Communities for Change, said hedge funds like BlueMountain are demanding that the Puerto Rican government close schools and cut teachers to recoup their investments.

“They are leading Puerto Rico into a depression era,” he said. “These billionaires living in towers in Manhattan are driving the island into a deep recession.”

BlueMountain holds more than $400 million in bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and would lose a fortune if the island goes bankrupt.

“BlueMountain is committed to restructuring PREPA’s obligations in a manner that will help the Authority maintain long-term solvency through modernization of its power generation and distribution systems,” the hedge fund said in a statement. “We believe that this approach is in the best interests of all parties involved, especially the people of Puerto Rico, who will benefit from more efficient and environmentally sound energy production.”

Puerto Rico’s fiscal problems began in 1996 when Congress began phasing out a tax break that made subsidiaries of U.S. corporations operating on the island exempt from federal taxes.

Last month, Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla warned the commonwealth could not repay the $72 billion in debt it built up by issuing bonds to keep the government running.